Voyage à la région haute normandie

Yesterday, D and I day-tripped a few hours west of Paris. First stop was Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake here:
Behind this was a really cool Japanese-looking church, of which I didn't get a good enough picture to post. But it was really cool, because usually all the churches in western Europe look the exact same. We also checked out a small Joan of Arc museum, located in a cold dungeon close to the site she was burnt. Of course, the little musée was completely outfitted with numerous scenes of the requisite eerie wax figures used throughout the entirety of European museum life. So I hurried through there, and am still unclear about the whole story of Joan of Arc. Oh well.

We also found a little playground secluded by huge green trees next to the Musée des Beaux Arts, so of course I had to stop off there. I left my backpack on the bench and was up checking out the playground, and saw another guy come into the area, so, completely oblivious to the implications, just commented nonchalantly to D that someone else was there. D silently turned and walked straight the bench where I had left my backpack, and curious as to why he was such a poor sport and had left me enjoying the playground by myself, I followed him. It was then that D explained that the guy was holding a beer and was walking toward my bag, then stopped when D reached it first and walked away. It was also then that I realized what an idiot I was. This was the first time I've ever had a little theft scare in the whole of my travels. Hopefully I won't be that oblivious again, and luckily D had the great sense to keep an eye on my bag, or I would have been out my apartment keys, my Navigo, both of our passports, and the kicker, our lunch for the day!

We wandered around the city in the frigid fog for a few hours, then caught a train another hour west to Le Havre. We found another cool church - this modern church was basically a hollowed out tower, probably forty stories high, and the entire walls were covered in stained glass. It was really beautiful, but of course my camera allowed me no decent pictures to post. After that, we walked down to the coast, as this was the main reason for our excursion:
La plage, of course! Nevermind the awkward plethora of odd-shaped rocks and the mid 40's temperatures, it was so refreshing to get to the edge of the country and listen to the waves. In case you desire an image of the sunset without my silly face obstructing, here's another shot: